Look Around
by WastingBits
Summary: "Look around. Don't rush. Take it in. It's beautiful, isn't it?" Bubbline. University au.
1. Prologue

**Hello! So yeah, welcome to this fanfic. Fair warning: it's gonna be a slow burn. I'll try to update as frequently as possible, but I'm not promising anything.**

**If anything, it's a story about learning to appreciate the smaller things in life and the time you spend hanging out with your closest people :)**

**So without further ado, let's get to it!**

* * *

The click of a door opening snapped her out of her studies.

"The lab is closing for today, dear." said a senile lady, sticking her head in the brightly lit room.

Bonnibel pried her eyes away from the microscope.

"Thank you, Martha, I'll just finish jotting a couple of things down and be on my way."

Only when she heard the door click shut, she took a deep breath and stretched her arms. Taking one last glance at her scattered notes she pulled them all into one pile, carefully organised them and placed them into her brown leather bag. She glanced through the half-closed window. The sun was already setting, lazy rays of sun making it through the blinds and unto the shiny floor of the lab. Bonnibel took a few swings on her chair and then stuck her hand out of her oversized lab coat and checked her watch. 8.13 PM. According to the university rules, the lab should have been closed and the students kicked out precisely 13 minutes ago. She made a mental note to thank Martha for letting her stay overtime. Again.

By the time she put all the high-tech gear back into it's original place and finished washing all the beakers she had used it was already 8.30. She took off her lab coat (which, of course, had B. Bishop meticulously sewn into it) and hung it up on the wall, as always, on the far right. She took one last look around the room before flicking the lights off and shutting the door behind her.

"I hope everything went well for you today, dear." said the lady at the counter with a smile, lifting her eyes from a book she was reading to look at Bonnie, as she was entering the lobby.

"It went rather well, a couple more tests and I think I'll be able to finally write my thesis. Thank you for always letting me stay and work after-hours."

"It's really no problem, dear, just don't overwork yourself." said Martha.

"I won't." said Bonnie opening the main door of the newly renovated science building. "I cleaned up everything in the lab so you wouldn't have to worry. Thanks again." And wrapping a pink scarf around her neck she headed out.

"I know you did." Said the elderly woman averting her gaze back to her book.

It was a warm early spring evening, albeit a little windy. Bonnie headed down the main street. She liked the fact that the university was located in a rather small town. Her twenty minute walk from the lab to her dorm always gave her time to sort things out in her head and mentally prepare a schedule for the next day. Today was no different. She walked, her thoughts trailing off…

_Right, tomorrow I have one lecture at 9 AM on kinetic theory, then an hour-long break, maybe I can squeeze in a visit to the library, I still need to return the book on the philosophy of science that I borrowed… God, was that book a chore to get through. Oh wait, I promised I'd meet Kim tomorrow. Darn it. And I bet she's not going to let me get out of this one, seeing as I called off the previous five meetings we arranged. But I had papers due! She really can't blame me on this one. Okay so mayyybe I made up an excuse that one time but in my defence it was only because I didn't want to listen to her rambling on about how I "need to have fun" and "loosen up" for an hour. I didn't work so hard to get into one of the best universities around so that I could "have fun". There's work to do. Expectations to meet. It's not like any of them have any idea of what my schedule is like…_

And just like that she appeared in front of the building she lived in. She heard loud rap music blaring out of the window on the third floor.

_Oh, honestly._

As she climbed the stairs to the fourth and final floor where her accommodation was located she could still hear the music blaring. It made her thankful that the university didn't have an "assigned roommates" policy and she could live by herself, if only in that tiny little space they called a room.

She unlocked the door to her room and flicked the lights on. It was minimalistic to say the least, but she enjoyed the breathing space and she wasn't much of a hoarder anyways. Almost everything in the room was either white or part-white: the walls, the bed (with pink sheets that Bonnie brought from home on top), the shelves above the bed, the desk. There was only one window in the entire room, but it was huge and covered the entire right half of the outer wall. The desk was pushed up against the left half of the same wall. There were notebooks, flash cards and various coloured pens scattered all over the desk. Bonnie had also stuck a bunch of sticky notes with reminders on the wall over the table. They, of course, were all organised by colour. The bed was placed in a way that she would sleep with her legs towards the window. During late spring and early autumn, when the days still began early, the sun shining in through the window would often wake her even before her alarm clock could.

The shelves above the bed were stacked with huge books about various sciences. Everything from particle physics to human anatomy, but there were also a couple of biographies, namely one on Tesla and one on Darwin. There was also a little cactus placed just next to the books that she had gotten the day she moved in to make the room look more "roomy". Maybe it wasn't overly fancy, but it was _her_ space and she liked it.

Bonnie entered the room, locking the door behind her. She proceeded to take off her scarf, fold it and place it carefully in the tiny closet just beside the door to the bathroom. Scratch that, maybe this place was fancy. After all, she didn't have the luxury of her own personal bathroom during her freshman year here. Now _that_ was a disaster. She shuddered remembering the distinct smell of public bathrooms. Entering the room she placed her bag over her chair and fell on the bed. As she gazed up at the ceiling, her thoughts began wandering again…

_Sigh… I already know word for word how our conversation is gonna go tomorrow. _

_"__Come hang out with us." _

_"__No." _

_"__Pleeease." _

_"__No." _

_"__I'm sure Feynman can wait. He doesn't seem like the jealous type."_

She chuckled silently at her own joke.

_Jeez, now I'm already making jokes for her in my mind. Maybe I did miss seeing them a little…_

With a deep breath she got off the bed, changed into her pyjamas (grey sweatpants with a pink t-shirt that had purple writing on it spelling out "bubblegum") and went off to perform all her traditional pre-sleep activities, such as showering and packing all her things for tomorrow. Later, when she got into bed, it didn't even take her 5 minutes to get to sleep.


	2. Chapter 1

The alarm clock started beeping at 7.15 AM. A hand lazily emerged from under the sheets and pressed the 'snooze' button. It was still dark outside.

When the clock started beeping loudly for the second time she finally got out from under the blanket. She looked at the clock. 7.30. Getting out of bed had always been a hassle. When she finally stood up without wobbling, she stretched her arms and yawned. Then she made her bed and went into the bathroom for mandatory "let's-not-look-like-a-complete-wreck-today" procedures.

She looked up at the mirror over her sink, staring at her own reflection. Her bed hair wasn't too bad today. She took an elastic band, some hair pins and tied it into a braid.

Her natural hair had been blonde, but she had dyed it bright pink in high-school, during her "rebellious" phase. In the end, that phase only lasted a month and was probably brought on by her taking second place in that years maths olympiad. However, apparently, she had dyed her hair wrong, because the incident had now left her with this pinkish blonde colour with some streaks being more pink than others. She hated it, but for some reason everyone else thought it looked cool, so she just left it alone. Maybe there was also a part of her that was afraid of screwing it up even more. Her friends sometimes still laughed about it, calling it her "seppuku" hair for disgracing her family. To be honest, she didn't find it very funny.

She got dressed, putting on her casual attire: purple jeans and pink hoodie. She couldn't be bothered to put in her contact lenses so she just went with her glasses.

Throwing her packed pink backpack over her shoulder she headed out, locking the door behind her.

As always, she arrived precisely 15 minutes before the lecture began so she could prepare all her writing equipment, look over her notes from the previous lecture and, of course, occupy a seat in the front (even though no one ever really fought her for a spot there).  
She was quite good at kinetic theory, so the lecture itself wasn't that tiring.

After it was over she slowly made her way to the student cafeteria, where she was supposed to meet Kim. She entered the building and began to look around for a familiar face. She saw her friend sitting at a table in the corner and waving at her. Bonnie smiled, sincerely for once, and made her way over.

"Hi!" said Kim, while shooting Bonnie her biggest smile.

"Hey." responded Bonnie, sitting down.

Kim had always been a bright, colourful kind of person. She always had a smile on her face and was optimistic about _everything. _Sometimes Bonnie loved that about her. Sometimes she sincerely hated it.

"You changed your hair again." said Bonnie.

"Yeah, just felt like it's time, y'know?"

"You change it, like, every week." laughed Bonnie.

"I've never changed it to blue before."

"Well, it looks good. Strangely so."

"I'll ignore that backhandedness of that compliment, thanks." said Kim, giving Bonnie a mischievous look.

They both laughed.

"So how's Jake been doing?"

Bonnie had known Kim since middle school. And she had known Jake and his adopted brother Finn since freshman year of high school. Kim and Jake had been dating since sophomore year of high school and Bonnie got to watch the entire process of their relationship coming to bloom. Right from the mutual crush phase, to the dating phase, to the obnoxiously cute honey-moon period.

"Oh, I guess I forgot to tell you. Jake and Finn should be here in about 10 minutes. You can ask him yourself then."

"No kidding? Finn's in town?"

"See! _This_! This right here is what I'm talking about! You've been out of the loop for so long, that you don't even know that Finn came over to visit. That's just messed up." said Kim, but there was no anger in her eyes. None at all.

"It's not fair to accuse me of not keeping up with the all the latest events." Bonnie still responded a bit defensively. "You know I have a ton of studying to do every day if I don't want to get my butt kicked out of this place or my scholarship revoked."

"I know… But still. It's not like you have to be stuck up in your fancy lab, curing cancer 24/7."

"I'm not curing cancer!"

"Hey, if anything that's an acknowledgment of the importance of your work, oh mighty scientist." Kim said teasingly. "But seriously though, you never have time for us anymore. I get that you're busy and stuff but it's still not very cool of you." Bonnie suddenly detected a bit of sadness in Kim's voice and felt a pang in her chest.

"Listen, we're all going to meet up in the coffee shop this evening." continued Kim. "No big party, no anything. Just some simple hang-out time. A small get together while Finn's still in town. Please come. For me."

Kim looked at Bonnie with her signature pleading puppy-eyes look. This girl plays dirty…

"Sigh… Fine." breathed out Bonnibel. _Darn, now I have to rearrange my schedule for saturday to fit in all the things I'll miss today…_

"Yes! Thank you!"

"So which coffee shop? It's a university town. There's like a thousand of 'em here."

"The one with live music every friday."

"You're going to have to be a little more specific."

"The one where hipsters like to gather a lot."

Bonnie just looked at her, trying to hold back laughter, but it was visible in her eyes.

"Yeah… I guess that didn't help." said Kim now laughing out loud. "Tell you what, I'll meet you by your dorm 7.30 and we can go there together. How does that sound?"

"Okay. But no kidnapping me and taking me to a pub! I still haven't forgiven you over the last time you tried to pull that."

"Yeah… Sorry 'bout that." said Kim, but from the little mischievous twinkle in her eyes, Bonnie deduced that she, in fact, wasn't sorry. Not even a little.

"Hey, guys!"

Bonnibel looked over her shoulder and saw Finn and Jake coming over. She smiled. Finn was growing up. Even though he was 2 years younger, he was almost as tall as Jake now. He was not only Jake's little bro, but kind of a little brother figure to everyone in their group. Sure, he had tried to ask Bonnie out once and it was a little awkward between them for a while after she turned him down, but he got over it rather quickly and they remained friends. She was thankful for that, not being one to like drama an awful lot.

"You won't believe what just happened!" said Kim with grin that looked just a little bit too smug for Bonnie's liking. "Bonnie just agreed to come hang out with us this evening!"

"No way!" said Jake.

"Oh _ha ha._" said Bonnie sarcastically.

"That's awesome! Thanks for making time to come see me Bub-Bubs." said Finn and looked at her with childlike gratitude in his eyes.

She just smiled at him. But another feeling had appeared deep with in her chest. Guilt? Maybe she has been drifting away from her best friends for too long… After all, they were like her second family. If not her first.

_Damn conscience._

* * *

**So yeah, the first chapter was a little short and pretty much all about getting to know how Bonnie interacts and feels about her friends. Please R&amp;R and message and pester me with whatever questions you have, it would be insanely appreciated :)  
Next chapter: we finally meet Marcy! Promise :)**


	3. Chapter 2

_Hmmm… Vest? No vest?_

Bonnie was pondering, while putting a small denim vest between her and the mirror and then pushing it aside. She repeated this process approximately ten times when she got a call. It was from Kim.

"Hey! We're waiting for you downstairs. The angry lady in the lobby won't let us come up because we don't live here, apparently."

"Oh, right. She's kinda strict, I guess I forgot to warn you."

"Just come down quickly."

"Wait!" shouted Bonnie into the phone before her friend could hang up. She took a breath and then, very expressively, said "To vest or not to vest?" She could almost hear Kim smirk.

"That is the question _indeed_, dear Bonnibel. I say… vest away."

"Ooh, are we rapping now?" Bonnie heard a distant voice say in the background. Sounded like Jake. Finn and him always loved coming up with beats and nonsensical rap lyrics on the spot. They were god awful, but made everyone laugh, so no one ever stopped them. Yup, she could already hear the beatboxing starting up in the background.

"Please come down quickly, Finn's not with us right now and I think he expects me to fill in…" Kim whispered quietly into the phone.

Bonnie laughed.

"Be right there." she said and hung up.

She slipped the vest over her white summer dress. She was probably going to freeze to death, but at least she'll go down looking pretty.

_Good grief Bonnibel, since when do you place looks over comfort… _

She wrapped a huge purple scarf around her neck and put on her favourite purple converse. They preserved her last sense of "nonchalant" style. She looked at herself in the mirror and turned around.

_Mom should see this, maybe then she'd think that all the work she put in trying to make me into a proper lady paid off. Although she'd probably throw out my converse. God knows she tried…_

She took her bag, locked up her room and ran downstairs to save Kim from the horror of Jake's "political" rap.

As Bonnie entered the lobby they were nowhere to be found. She looked around, confused. She waved goodbye to the "gatekeeper" (that's how the entire student body lovingly called the lady responsible for keeping order in the dorms) and went outside.

As she stepped out of the building, she was pleasantly surprised. It was still early spring, but the weather was only slightly cooler outside than indoors. Kim and Jake were standing a bit further from the main entrance. Kim was wearing yellow jeans, light blue t-shirt and a dark green overcoat. No one should look good in that, but Kim did. Matching seemingly non-matchable colours was her super power. Jake was dressed in black skinny jeans and his favourite yellow hoodie, the fringe of his messy brown hair sticking out from under the hood. He always wore that. Bonnie could swear he had about five of those yellow hoodies and just switched them around.

"I thought you were waiting for me inside." she said to them.

"We were, but then Jake's rap got us kicked out." Kim responded and looked sternly at Jake.

"Pfft… Whatever. Hacks can't understand my raw talent." he said. Kim rolled her eyes.

"So… where is this oh-so-chill coffee shop of yours?" asked Bonnie.

Kim weaved her right arm through Bonnie's left. "You'll see." she said with that signature smile of hers.

As they walked, Bonnie's mind couldn't help but trail off again…

_Two papers due on tuesday… The research paper is almost done, I just have to run the experiment a few more times and jot down the results. But the lab doesn't work on sundays, so that will have to wait till monday. Argh, I hate doing it on the last day. But that means if I can finish up the philosophy one by tomorrow evening and print it out, I can have a free sunday. I wonder If I can finish both of those books in one day…_

She snapped out of it, as she realised she was completely missing everything Kim was saying.

"…y'know, I thought I'd get sick of Shakespeare jokes, being an english-lit major and all… But weirdly, I'm not. It's like thy never get old."

"I see what you did there." said Bonnie, laughing at the silliness of the joke.

"I have never met anyone, who appreciates Shakespeare jokes as much as you two." said Jake. "That is the cutest, dorkiest thing ever."

Kim just laughed and kissed Jake on the cheek. "You're the dork, dork."

Bonnie had a hard time admitting to herself, that she was just a little bit… well… jealous.

The coffee shop was located about twenty minutes from her dorm, walking in the opposite direction from the lab. Bonnie already thought about how inconvenient that is.

As they approached, she scanned the premises. The supposed hang-out was in between a tattoo parlour and a small grocery store. _Weird placing_, she thought. It was a red brick building. The walls looked thick, but the edges were slowly crumbling off. Vines stretched across almost all of it, but two windows were sticking out from under them, like large eyes. It didn't look like the greenery was cut to keep them from blocking the view. It looked like the vines themselves decided to grow around them. Bonnie could see that part of the seating was made up of large window sills. The entrance door was rather small, painted a dark shade of blue. Over the door there was a small sign. "The Hideout". The vines and the overall beat up look of the walls really did make the place look sort of like a hideout.

Upon entering and looking around Bonnie thought that the place was actually quite cosy. It was basically just one big room. The bar (read: a beat up counter) was located in the far back of the shop. In the leftmost corner of the room were stairs, leading to a second floor, which didn't seem to belong to the shop itself. There were small coffee tables that looked like someone splattered paint all over them, Pollock-style. There were no chairs. Just various couches and sofas, obviously not bought as a set.

Finn was already waiting for them, sitting on of the window sills. Well… not sitting. More like half-laying, propped up on his elbow. His phone in his hand, texting someone.

"Yo! Bro!" Jake shouted.

Finn looked up from his phone. "Hey guys!" He stood up, hugging everyone in a row. "Took you long enough…"

"Sorry," Jake said, sitting down on a beat up couch. "PB was getting ready for like an hour."

_PB… I haven't heard that nickname in a while…_

"_Girls_, man…" Finn said.

Kim quickly came to Bonnie's defence. "Hey! At least it paid off, right? I mean, _look_ at her! She's gorgeous."

"I never denied the fact that we had two of the prettiest girls in in our gang." Jake looked at them and winked. He was obviously resisting the urge to rap that last sentence.

Bonnie just blushed. She never knew how to respond to compliments. She tried to shift the topic away from herself. "So, Finn, what have you been up to lately?"

"Just hanging around, I guess. I had to get away from school for a little while. Everyone always questions me about my future and I never know how to answer. I mean, how am I supposed to know what I'm gonna do for the next twenty years of my life? The future is scary, man…"

"It's not as scary as you think. Trust me." said Kim. _Optimistic as always, _Bonnibel thought.

"Yeah, man," agreed Jake "you don't have to know everything right now. You'll just make it up as you go. Ain't nothing with that. It's your biz."

"I guess…" Finn said, looking up at the ceiling.

"So what's everyone getting?" Kim was trying to prevent a post-philosophical-Finn silence before it happened. "I'm thinking 'bout a coffee with caramel in it. Or maybe caramel with coffee in it. Either way's good."

And then Bonnie heard it. The sound of gently plucked bass strings. It reverberated through the room.

She turned her head to where the melody was coming from. A girl with stunning long black hair was sitting on a stool on a small stage, not too far from the bar. She was wearing a red and black flannel shirt, at least two sizes too big for her, a black tank top underneath it and black skinny jeans, that had more holes in them than actual denim. She looked… grungy to say the least. But there was also something different about her… she looked… good. Really good. Bonnie immediately stopped that trail of thought.

The stage itself was obviously made with solo acoustic performers in mind. It barely had enough space for two people. Three was out of the question. Even calling it a stage was quite a stretch. It would be better defined as "a very slightly elevated floor space of about three square meters".

Bonnie could only keep her mind occupied with trying to mentally calculate the exact area of the stage until the girl started singing.

_Oh, I know you're still with me.  
You're my compass and my sea._

_Oh, I know you're still with me._  
_You're my compass and my sea._

Then a beat appeared. Only then did Bonnie notice another person on stage. Behind the girl was a guy, looking just as punk-rock as her, if not more so. He was sitting on a wooden box and hitting it with his palms to make the rhythm. He seemed really into it. His eyes closed. Her eyes were closed as well…

_Oh, I hope you can hear me.  
__Follows billion miles away…  
__You stay._

_'Cause I love you so dearly._  
_Follows billion miles away…_

The girl was tapping her black converse clad foot to the beat that the guy behind her was making. Bonnie found the entire sight hypnotising. 

_'Cause I've been around two times and found that you're the only thing I need.  
__'__Cause I've been around two times and found that you're the only thing I need.  
__'Cause I've been around two times and found that you're the only thing I need.  
__'__Cause I've been around two times and found that you're my only friend indeed._

"Wow. The music's really good tonight. Looks like we got lucky." said Kim, also looking over at the musicians. In that moment, everyone was looking at them.

"Yeah… I think I'm gonna go get a coffee." Bonnie stood up and headed towards the bar. She wasn't that much of a coffee person. Really, she just wanted an excuse to see the performance up-close.

"Excuse me, miss? Can I help you?" only upon hearing that question did Bonnie realise that she had just been standing around the bar for about a minute , her gaze glued to the stage. She was completely out of it. She looked at the person working the bar. He was a tall guy, with dark hair and a goatee.

"S-Sorry." she was flustered. It was strange. She usually wasn't particularly affected by music of any sorts.

The guy just smiled. "It's okay. Marcy can do that to people."

"Marcy? Is she the girl playing right now?" Bonnie was looking over to the stage again.

"Yeah. Well, her and her brother, anyways." he responded. "So, what would you like this evening?" He was smiling.

"I think I'll just have an iced latte then…"

The guy smiled a knowing smile and proceeded to make the drink. And then the music stopped. Everyone clapped. Bonnie wanted to clap too, but her hands were busy searching for her wallet.

_Dammit, really? Right now?_

Just then, the guy placed her order on top of the counter. "Don't worry, it's on the house. It's a first time customer type of deal."

Bonnie had to admit, she was taking a liking to this place. How unexpected.

"How do you know I'm here for the first time?" she asked.

"I own this shop. I remember my customers." He responded, wiping up the mess he made while making Bonnie her drink.

"So tell me, Billy," Bonnie looked over. The raven-haired girl was approaching the bar. "how was the show?"

"I don't know, Marce. I can't focus on your show _and_ make the greatest coffee in the history of mankind. " _It does taste amazing_, Bonnie thought.

"Ask her. She listened." The guy nodded towards Bonnie.

The girl looked at Bonnie curiously. Bonnie felt herself blush. _What the heck is this?_

"Did you like the show?" Marcy asked Bonnie.

"Y-yeah… It was… fascinating."_ Fascinating? Really, Bonnie? Really?_ She mentally scolded herself.

The girl just laughed. "Thanks."

Bonnie nodded, took her iced latte and quickly went back to her friends.

_That was weird. Why did I get embarrassed all of a sudden? Ugh… Humiliating. And now she probably thinks I'm a freak. Great. Wait… Why do I even care?_

"Yo PB, were you just talking to the bass-lady?" Jake asked her as she was sitting down.

"Yeah… She asked me what I thought about her show."

"And what did you say?"

"I said it was fascinating."

They all laughed.

"Classic Bonnie." Kim said. Bonnie pouted.

They spent the rest of the evening talking and catching up. Bonnie did her best to not look behind herself every few seconds. When they said their goodbyes and Bonnie was left alone with her thoughts, walking back home, she couldn't help but think that this evening was somehow different. She just didn't know wether it was a good kind of different yet.

* * *

**Yay! We met Marcy! Well... almost :3  
If you're curious, the song that Marceline was singing was Milk &amp; Black Spiders by Foals. Great song.**  
**So yeah, please keep sending me stuff and pestering me and just talking to me about the story and what you think because that's the best possible motivation booster. See you for the next one!**


	4. Chapter 3

The damn alarm again. Why didn't she just change the sound to something less annoying than that obnoxious beeping?  
She answered her own question: because she wouldn't get up any other way.

Bonnie rolled of the bed and proceeded with her usual routine. Pink hoodie, purple jeans, staring with horror at her hair in the mirror, glasses (still too lazy for contacts)… All that jazz.

As she packed her lecture notes she looked over at the small calendar, pinned to the wall just over her table. Thursday. She sighed.  
It had almost been a week since that evening in "The Hideout" with her friends. She ran through the entire evening in her head at least a thousand times by now, trying to make sense of the whole thing. She was always a little taken aback every time she caught herself doing that. It's not like anything profound had happened. And yet it felt… special. It felt like an event. The kind that you say '_Hey, remember that one time?_' to your friends and they all nod knowingly and smile.

She put on her coat, wrapped around her pink scarf and went outside. This week had been much colder than the last.

As Bonnie walked to the stairs, she ran into a short girl, who looked like she had the most wicked of hang-overs. Seemed about right. Cherry had been known around the campus as quite the party person. Bonnie never really understood that. Why even apply to a university if all you're going to do is party?

"Hey, Bonnie…" the girl said. Her voice about an octave lower than usual.

"Oh, hey, Cherry. How was the party?"

"Do I really look that bad?" Cherry smiled, but still looked like she was going to throw up at any moment. Bonnie wasn't going to hang around to see that. "Oh, you know… The usual ordeal. Lots of booze. Lots of dancing."

"Who even throws a party on a wednesday? Don't you have lectures?"

"Yeah… But the professor never marks attendance, so I'm good."

"Yeah… okay." Cherry's insight on lectures reminded Bonnie about her own ones, that were starting in about twenty minutes. "Well… I'll see you around."

"Yeah, see you around." Cherry said.

As Bonnie was exiting their shared corridor she turned her head back. "You know, I have some aspirin in my room. I'm kinda late so I have to run, but I can give you the key to my room and you can go take some if you want." _Wait… what?_

"Really? You'd do that? Wow. That would actually be amazing. I'm probably not leaving this building today so… You could just come over to my room to take your key when you get back."

"Uh… yeah. Sure." said Bonnie, as she tossed the keys to the girl. _What is happening? Why am I doing this?_

"You're a life saver. Thanks a ton." the girl looked at Bonnie with a curious look in her eye.

"What?" Bonnie asked.

"Oh. Nothing. I just wouldn't have expected this from you. For all you know I could rob you."

"Don't make me change my mind. And don't get used to it."

"Yes ma'am." the girl said dragging her legs over to Bonnie's room, one hand over her stomach.

Before she could actually change her mind, Bonnie hurried downstairs.

_What the hell was that? She was right, she could actually rob me. Did I just give the key to all of my personal belongings to a, possibly, still slightly drunk stranger? Am I insane? I'd never do that. I don't do that. That room is my space. Oh god, what if she throws up on my bed? Ew. Ugh. Never again. Ever._

As Bonnie walked into the lecture hall, for the first time since she enrolled in this university, she sat down in the second row, instead of the first. She was obviously flustered and going mental and she didn't want her professor to notice. No way.

During the entire lecture she found it hard to concentrate. She never had any trouble focusing during any of her lectures, but this was chemistry, of all things. Her favourite subject. Maybe all she needed was a little pick-me-up… Bonnie decided on coffee. Desperate times call for desperate measures.

After the lecture was over she haphazardly shuffled her notes and stuck them in her rucksack. The quicker she was going to get over this weird funk she was in, the better. Walking out of the natural sciences faculty she turned towards the only place she knew that served coffee Bonnie found passable, at least that one time.

_That one time… Nope. Not running over through that evening in my mind again._

As she walked to _The Hideout _she tried to mentally make a schedule for friday but to no avail. Her mind was full of intangible noise. It stopped only when she saw a familiar figure standing by the door of the coffee shop, leaned up against the wall. It was Marcy, the girl who played a small show here last friday, and who, Bonnie had to admit, was probably at least half of the reason that she couldn't get that evening out of her mind. Bonnie furrowed her brow as she realised that the girl was smoking. She hated smokers.

She tried to walk past the girl without her noticing Bonnie. That "fascinating_" _comment she made still made her cringe. She was already opening the door when…

"Oh, hey. I know you, right?" _Dammit._

Bonnie turned around to face the girl.

"Y-yeah. Hi. Yeah. I mean… Um. I saw your show the other night." _Way to be articulate, Bishop._

"Oh, right! You're the one who said it was fascinating." Marcy chuckled, the cigarette still burning in her right hand. Bonnie felt heat creep up her face.

"Yeah… That was me. Sorry. I didn't mean it in a bad way."

"What? No, I didn't take it in a bad way. I took it as a very, umm… _original_ compliment." Marcy smiled at Bonnie.

"Okay then. Cool."

"You know, if you liked it you should come here tomorrow. I'm doing another one, although by myself this time. Marshall, the guy who was drumming that is, can't make it."

Bonnie smiled inside. Talking to Marcy gave her that feeling you get when you're a freshman in high school and the senior kid decides to talk to you for some reason and you feel all badass even though it's just small talk. Like you've been chosen. Like maybe some of their coolness will rub off on you.

"That sounds awesome. I'll try to be there, you're really good." _Oh god, Bonnibel, what are you doing fan girling? Might as well start blabbering about how absolutely spiffing she looks…_

Marcy just flashed her brightest smile. "Thanks. That actually means a lot coming from a stranger."

It was then that Marcy blew out a puff of smoke. Bonnie coughed, out of habit more than anything, quickly stepped back and went into the shop. But not before she smelled cherry scented smoke. Even she had to admit, it smelled kind of delicious.

As she entered she heard the bell over the door tinkle silently. She usually found those things obnoxious, but this one was weirdly… well… cosy, to put it simply.

Bonnie was standing in line for her iced coffee, just behind an incredibly tall guy with a pretentious moustache and a funny hat, when she heard the bell ring again, notifying everyone of a new presence in the room. Marcy entered back into the shop, eyes searching for someone. Only then did Bonnie took in what she was wearing properly. It was an overly large hoodie and black denim shorts, with black, see-through tights underneath. Her incredibly long black hair was tied up in a high pony tail. Once again, she looked, well, hot. She looked hot. Even Bonnie couldn't lie to herself about that.

Marcy's eyes suddenly found Bonnie's and their gazes locked. Marcy gave her an awkward smile, waved a little and made her way over to Bonnibel.

"Hey. Um… look, I'm sorry I just blew the smoke in your face like that. That was douchy and inconsiderate. Can I pay for your coffee as an apology?"

Bonnibel just stood there for a few seconds, seemingly confused about everything around her. "It's okay, really. I'm not poor."

"Hey, I didn't mean to step on your pride or anything." Marceline looked at Bonnie with a questioning grin. "I'm just trying to make a nice gesture. Besides, I get a huge discount here anyways, seeing as I'm their best customer and all. I kinda live here."

"Well, okay then, I guess. What do you mean you live here? Are you really that addicted to coffee?"

"No, I mean I_ literally_ live here. I rent a small apartment on the second floor of this building."

"Woah. And how is it? Living above a hipster coffee shop, that is." Bonnie asked.

"It's actually not all that bad. Especially since the owner of the _The Hideout_ is Billy. He's rad, always makes me coffee on the house if he sees that I'm in a bad mood and lets me do gigs here that cover, like, half of my rent money."

Bonnie wondered how big was the apartment if occasionally doing small gigs like that paid for half of Marcy's rent, but thought better than to impolitely question her.

"Sounds pretty cool. A lot better than living in a dorm full of people that think every day is a friday."

Marcy laughed. "That actually sounds about right for a student dorm. Pretty ordinary, really."

"I guess I'm not one for ordinary then." Bonnie responded. Marceline shot her a curious look.

"I guess you're not."

* * *

**Originally planned on making this chapter longer but I'm kinda having a writers block and I'm not really happy with the second part of the chapter yet so I decided to split it into two chapters. Sorry for the wait. **

**Enjoy! :)**

**P.S. Reviews are _greatly_ appreciated!**


	5. Chapter 4

"What does he put in this coffee? It's amazing." said Bonnibel as she and Marceline flopped down on the bean bags carefully placed in the corner of the shop.

"I know, right? It's like sex in your mouth." Marcy was holding her own on-the-house coffee which had more caramel than actual coffee, but whatever. Bonnie blushed a little at the expression. "Yeah…"

"So… What's your major?" asked Marcy.

"Oh! I'm in the natural sciences department, but I focus mostly on chemistry." Talking about her studies made Bonnie calm down. Right now it seemed like the one subject she still had complete control over.

"Damn… Sounds hard."

"It's actually fascinating. Right now, I'm doing a series of experiments for my upcoming thesis on the effects of prolonged radiation upon a single molecule. I actually only have a couple experiments at most left. The results right now tend to lead to the possibility of a…" Bonnie caught Marcy's amused stare. "Ahem… Sorry. I know I tend to ramble on about science… It's kind of lame."

"No no no," Marceline was quick to correct her. "It was actually super cool listening to you. Really. I love listening to people who are as excited about their subjects as you are. Makes me think that maybe this world hasn't lost all hope yet." she said with a chuckle. "I wish I was as excited by my subject… Maybe then I wouldn't fail half of my classes."

"You study here?" Bonnie asked, surprised.

"Is that really so strange?" Marceline asked, a smile still on her face but you could see a bit of hurt flicker across her eyes.

"Sorry, I didn't mean it like that. I just thought that, you know, you being a musician and all that you wouldn't bother going to lectures… That you're too above it all, I guess."

"Hey. I'm not that pretentious. Plus, I know that being a musician isn't necessarily going to feed me so I enrolled as a back-up plan until I began to realise that traditional studying wasn't really an option for me. Either I become a successful musician or… well… I guess I can still be a successful hobo."

"If it helps, I think you'd be the best looking hobo around town." _Wait… Did I just flirt?_

Marcy laughed. "Thanks. I think I'd like to be one of those hobos that gets all up in your face. Oooh! Like that one from the Sweeney Todd musical who sings city on fireee… I could so pull that off."

Bonnie laughed. She thought about how this was… kind of simple. Talking to Marcy was easy. She usually thought about every single thing she said, but with Marceline the words seemed to kind of just come out. She had yet to determine wether this was a good thing.

Then she remembered. "Shit!" Bonnie said suddenly standing up. "I left a totally drunk chick in my room and she might have stolen all of my things. I need to go. Now."

"Or you can just stay and worst case scenario is you'll end up keeping me company when I'm wandering the streets homeless and we'll be the best hobo duo ever." Marceline said smiling.

"What? No. Dammit, how could I be so stupid." Bonnie was now frantically trying to pick up all of her scattered stuff.

Marceline looked a little taken aback. "Look, Bonnibel, chill." She was intently looking at Bonnie, who looked like she was about to start hyperventilating. Marcy did her best to calm the situation the only way she knew how. Teasing. "Why is there a drunk girl in your room anyway? What kind of kinky stuff do you get up to at night? And here I was thinking you're some kind of goodie-two-shoes science nerd." It wasn't working.

"Ha ha." Bonnie responded sarcastically. "Look, I really have to go."

"Okayyy then. Well, will you come tomorrow?"

"Uhh… What's tomorrow?"

"My show. Remember? I kinda invited you when we were standing outside." Marceline's brow was furrowed now.

"Oh. Right. Yeah. I'll be there." Bonnie said now going through the door. "See you then!" was the last thing she yelled out.

As she ran back to her dorm her mind was full of what's and why's and just general what the glob had just happened type nonsense. She tried to push it out with the image of her room - completely trashed. When she entered her building she didn't even bother saying hello to the gatekeeper as was traditionally the first thing she did when returning from somewhere. If she could, she'd like to stay on the gatekeeper's good side. But right now there was more important biz in her mind. Like holy fire truck my room and what was I thinking. So she just dashed upstairs.

When she got to her door she searched her rucksack for her key out of pure habit, but then she remembered the whole reason for her being so out of breath. She placed her hand on the doorknob and lingered for a while. She was legitimately afraid of what she'll find. Oh, the possibilities.

Then, when she finally pulled herself together, fully prepared to give a big speech on morals and responsibilities, she twisted the door knob and opened the door.

She found… Nothing. Well, to be precise it wasn't nothing. It was just the nothing in the "nothing's changed" kind of way. In reality, everything was as she remembered leaving it. There was no bad smell. A really good sign. Her bed was made. All of her books were still there. No matter how hard she looked around she couldn't spot any sort of bodily fluids anywhere. Her cactus wasn't dead. Although it's quite hard to kill a cactus, but still. Huh, she thought.

She turned around and went off Cherry's room. "It's open." she heard a few seconds after knocking. She pushed on the handle and stepped into the girls room.

"Oh, hey!" said Cherry, smiling, when she looked up from the book she was reading and saw Bonnie. "Your key is on the table over there. Thanks again, you're a real life saver."

"Oh… Okay." Bonnie responded quietly. "Umm… You didn't do anything in my room, right? Like, throw up or anything? Because I couldn't find anything."

Cherry looked at Bonnie, scanning her. "Oh my god. Don't tell me you're so disheveled because you ran back here thinking that I trashed your room."

"Uhh… maybe?"

"Gee, thanks for the vote of confidence."

Over the 18 years that she has lived on this planet, Bonnie had felt like a lot of things, but never once in her life has she felt like this big of an idiot. She wanted to say something to Cherry, who, understandably, looked just a little bit angry and had stuck her nose back in her book. Sadly, she didn't really know how to handle even normal social situations, much less ones like these. So she just took her keys off of the table and went back to her room.

It was a while, before she finally fell asleep.

* * *

**Thank you to ShadowHunted, whose review gave me the extra bit of motivation to finally finish this little bit and get on with the story :)**  
**As always, please R&amp;R and I love you guys :3**


	6. Chapter 5

Bonnibel plopped down on a bean bag in the JCR next to Jake with a grunt. She felt like she was physically beat up the entire day and still forced herself to go to the lab to finish taking some notes. She thanked god or whatever heavenly power was out there that there were no lectures today.

"Rough day?" asked Jake, his eyes glued to the television, his hands firmly on a video game controller.

"You have no idea." responded Bonnie, rubbing her temples.

"Wanna talk about it?"

"Nah, it's nothing. I think I'm just going to stay in today after all, I just need a little rest, probably."

"After all? Did you plan on doing something?" asked Jake.

"Huh?" Bonnie was completely out of it.

Jake paused his game in the middle of some sort of race. "I asked you if you were planning on doing something this evening, since you said _after all_. Are you okay? You're way spaced out, an unusual state of being, for you."

"No, I'm fine, really." Bonnie forced a smile out of herself. Truth be told, she wasn't even sure why she was this way herself. Everything, every tiny detail today just felt, well… off. "I was planning on going to The Hideout today," she continued after a slight pause. "Marceline's doing another gig there, I accidentally bumped into her yesterday and she invited me."

"Marceline? Is she that punk-ish chick with the bass from last friday? Are you two pals now? How did that happen?" Jake was obviously extremely interested.

"Ugh, Jake, that is way too many questions for me to answer in detail as I am now." Bonnie took a deep breath and spilled out the next sentence in one big sigh. "No-we're-not-friends-I-just-accidentally-ran-into-her-and-she-somehow-recognised-me-and-we-talked-for-while-and-she-seems-pretty-cool-so-i-thought-about-going-to-the-gig-but-not-anymore."

"Aw, man, that gig actually sounds rad. I remember her playing really well last time, and the coffee there is amazing. Are you sure you're not up for going? We could invite Kim and all go together."

"No."

"Man, that's cold, PB."

"Look, I just really need some rest. And you should stop with that silly nickname, we're not high school freshmen anymore."

"I think it's cute. And Finn will be disappointed if you ask him to stop calling you that, the kid takes strange pride in his nicknames."

Bonnie didn't answer. She felt like there was nothing and everything on her mind all at once. She pushed herself off the beanbag and with a wave and a weak "Bye." left Jake sitting there by himself, looking at her with concern, and went back to her dorm.

When she was in her hallway she saw Cherry, who was walking back from the shared kitchen, probably toward her own room.

"Hey, Cherry." Bonnibel waved her hand at her and tried to push out a casual smile.

"Yeah." the girl responded coldly and brushing against Bonnie due to the narrow hallway made her way past her. Bonnie heard a door shut behind her back.

_I guess she's still angry about the indirect accusation of being irresponsible._ _I should probably go and apologise properly, just not today… Now is sleepy time, Bonnie._

As she entered her room the first thing she did was pick up her phone that she had clumsily left on her desk today before walking out to the lab in the morning. She had 3 missed messages. Weird. Granted, she hadn't even checked or used her phone in the last couple of days probably, but she usually didn't keep in close contact with anyone apart from Kim and they both weren't the kind of people who stay up texting late into the night.

Two of the messages were from Finn. Bonnie looked over each carefully.

**_hey PB can you advise me on how to ask a girl out? :P_**

_Great. Who does he think I am, a professional dating adviser? He should know first hand about how I am at relationships._

She skipped to his second message.

**_i know its kind of weird to be asking you but I cant really ask jake and me and kim never were that close and it would be kind of awkward :/ plus shes the kind of person who can get way over excited about these things xP_**

_He has a point_, Bonnie thought, remembering some instances of Kim forcing her to fuss over dates and such.

Bonnibel sighed, she was far from the person you should ask these kinds of things about. I'll deal with him later, she thought.

The third message was from an unknown number. It was sent yesterday, at noon.

**_Hey, got your number from Shay, just wanted to thank you for the key, I feel much better know ;) By the way, I accidentally saw that your bookshelf is completely deprived of any good fiction, when you come by my room, remind me to lend you Battle Royale :) btw, this is Cherry._**

Great, if she wasn't feeling awful before, now her consciousness really started to claw at her guts. _I never signed up for all this drama nonsense._

Bonnibel took a few deep breaths, to calm herself down. _Okay, brain, break this down like a math problem. She's angry. How do I fix it? I need to apologise. Algorithm: take a twenty minute nap so that I wouldn't faint mid-apology, go buy her something from the vending machine downstairs, go knock and if she's in her room apologise. Else, leave a nice note. Done._

With that thought, Bonnie finally let herself fall down on her bed. Even though a little regret over the soon-to-be-missed gig still lingered, she fell asleep, her chest rhythmically rising in sync with her deep breaths. 

* * *

She woke up 3 hours later. She looked at her wristwatch. 1'o'clock. Dammit.  
She got up and straightened out her shirt, paced around the room for a bit. It was too late to go and disturb Cherry now. On the other hand, it was not like she wanted to go back to sleep. She lingered for a while, then quickly grabbed a denim jacked from her closet and set out.

For the first time in her life, she didn't really know where she was going, she just went out, into the night. It was weird, Bonnibel wasn't much of a night person.  
She walked through the streets, somber lights lit her way and for the first time she distinctly noticed and took in the towns olden romanesque architecture. She had walked these streets every day for the past year, but she never really stopped to look around. After about half an hour of walking wherever her feet led her she found an old bench to sit down on, rest for a while.

As she sat there, she rubbed her temples a few times. She distinctly noticed how for the first time since forever, her thoughts were empty, not filled with responsibilities or formulas or other random causes of anxiety. Everything was still. _Probably the effect of the night,_ she thought.

Then she heard steps. They were soft, comfortable, almost mute. Bonnie raised up her head and saw a familiar slumped shape in front of her.

"Wow, you really can't avoid me, can you?" said Marceline with a crooked smile.

* * *

**Hello, my dearest shippers! I'm back with another chapter for this oh-so-incredibly-hard-to-motivate-myself-to-write story. I hope you're all doing well. Tell me what you think, especially about the format of the text messages, I kinda tried to capture the different texting styles that people have (does that make sense?). Either way, just talk to me about anything, on tumblr or here and, as always, R&amp;R :)**


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